


Control Group

by crapoftheworld



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (its in the background sorry lol), :), BAMF Coran (Voltron), BAMF Hunk (Voltron), BAMF Lance (Voltron), Canon Compliant, Cave-In, Caves, Coran Gets A Backstory, Crack Treated Seriously, Diplomacy, Engineer Hunk (Voltron), Gen, Hunk & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Missions Gone Wrong, Non-Graphic Violence, POV Multiple, Pining Keith/Lance (Voltron), Pre-Voltron Lion Swap, Protective Coran (Voltron), Sniper Lance (Voltron), Space Uncle Coran (Voltron), but its not really angsty, ok its only kind of crack
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-21
Updated: 2020-08-21
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:08:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26012407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crapoftheworld/pseuds/crapoftheworld
Summary: Unfortunately for him, the rumbling only grew stronger, the ground beneath their feet grew unsteady, and before anyone could move or yell, there was a shower of boulders and dirt that had Lance squeezing his eyes shut and coughing up a storm.“Hunk! Coran! Lance!”When the dust settled, Lance could see that the entrance to the tunnel system was entirely blocked off by a thick wall of rocks. And Coran, Hunk, and he were stuck on the wrong side.***Every good science experiment needs a control group. The same can be said for any ragtag group of aliens tasked with defending the universe.
Relationships: Allura & Coran & Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt & Shiro, Coran & Hunk & Lance (Voltron), Voltron Paladins & Voltron Paladins
Comments: 10
Kudos: 54





	Control Group

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bookdragon9113](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookdragon9113/gifts).



> Yay! bookdragon9113 requested this like,,, 50ish years ago and I swear I've been working on it but it took a while to come together lol
> 
> Anyway, I've decided to split it into two parts rather than making it a straight thru one-shot
> 
> Lots of POV switches -- in fact, it's written almost like an actual episode of VLD (if you ignore the blood and cursing). Have fun, y'all.

“What was that?”

“Um… it was a rumble?”

“It was obviously a rumble, Keith! I was asking what _made_ the rumble.”

Keith’s cheeks flushed in embarrassment and Lance laughed. They had been running through this cave system for the better part of two hours.

“Maybe it was the thousands of Galra troops that are pursuing us,” Coran chirped, quite unhelpfully.

“Maybe it was just a--”

“Look! I can see light up ahead,” Hunk called, cutting off whatever explanation Pidge had come up with.

They had left the lions and Castle Ship on an orbiting moon, responding to a distress signal from Ankmin. The village elders had cautioned against bringing the giant warships to the planet surface -- it was apparently very unstable. Thus, Allura had flown them all down in an Altean pod, and after speaking briefly with the village council, it was decided that Team Voltron would infiltrate and clear out the single Galra installation on the planet.

As the group upped their pace, heading toward the pinprick of daylight, another rumble shook the tunnel, sending silt and small rocks raining down on them.

“Princess, look out!” Coran yelled as he tackled Allura to the ground, a chunk of rock narrowly missing her head.

They all held their breaths while the rumbling faded away again. Shiro helped Allura and Coran to their feet, and the other paladins dusted soot off of their armor. Then they all took off again, hoping to avoid being caught by the Galra or another miniature earthquake.

Lance started to feel winded about halfway there, but then Keith cut in front of him and it was _on,_ obviously. _Whoever said running for your life from the Galra couldn’t be fun?_

Luckily for Lance, his longer legs and leaner build gave him the upper hand, and soon he was gasping for breath at the mouth of the tunnel. Keith came to a halt behind him a few seconds later, equally out of breath, and the rest of the group was still a little ways away.

“I see you finally--” Lance said, pausing to gulp in a breath of fresh air before continuing, “--made it!”

Lance felt sweat trickle down his back and suddenly remembered why he always complained about the flight suit. This planet was _hot._

“Yeah, well I beat you back on Cozarra!” Keith shot back, wiping sweat from his brow with his wrist.

“That didn’t count! You definitely-- _whoa!”_

Lance was interrupted by the loudest rumbling yet. He was standing fully outside of the tunnel, a couple of feet away from where Keith was leaning against the wall just inside. The rest of the team was almost there. _There wasn’t enough time._

Lance started running back to the tunnel, his current plan to grab Keith and yank him out of the way because the entrance was definitely about to collapse, but a lot of things happened very suddenly that were most certainly _not_ part of Lance’s plan.

Shiro reached Keith before Lance could, tackling him clear out of the cave entrance. Pidge and Allura followed quickly behind them, but Hunk and Coran were too far away and moving too slowly. Hunk had tripped.

Lance didn’t stop running at the cave entrance, modifying his original plan from helping Keith to helping Hunk and Coran. There was a chorus of yelling from his team, both from his friends inside of the tunnel and everyone on the outside. They were all telling him to _get the fuck out._

Lance ignored them. He couldn’t let any of his friends get trapped in a cave when there was a legion of Galra soldiers breathing up their ass.

He got to Coran first, grabbing onto his wrist and yanking him back toward daylight. Shiro looked like he wanted to come and help, but Lance yelled at him to stay put. They could make it, they just needed a _few_ more seconds…

Unfortunately for him, the rumbling only grew stronger, the ground beneath their feet grew unsteady, and before anyone could move or yell, there was a shower of boulders and dirt that had Lance squeezing his eyes shut and coughing up a storm.

“Hunk! Coran! Lance!”

When the dust settled, Lance could see that the entrance to the tunnel system was entirely blocked off by a thick wall of rocks. And Coran, Hunk, and he were stuck on the wrong side.

Lance glanced around in the dim lighting, making sure that nobody had been crushed by a boulder before replying to Shiro.

“Shiro! We’re alright, everyone’s fine!” _Thank the fucking gods._

“Hang on, paladins! We’ll get you out!”

Lance heard the sounds of rocks being moved coming from the other side of the rubble, so he and Coran got to work clearing stones away on their side, too. They weren’t really making any progress. Plus, Hunk was being _distinctly unhelpful,_ seeing as he had yet to so much as touch a boulder.

“Hunk, come on! There’s a nice big rock over here with your name on it!”

Lance looked back at Hunk when he got no response and saw that his friend was staring into the darkness of the tunnel, unblinkingly. If he were a cat, he would’ve had his hackles raised and his ears pressed flat against his skull, like he was waiting for something.

“Hunk? Buddy?”

“I can hear footsteps. Oh god, do you think they’re gonna catch us?”

“Big guy, we’re currently trapped in a cave with them,” Lance replied, but then Hunk looked like he was about to barf so Lance quickly tacked on a “but we’re gonna be fine!”

Then he addressed the team on the other side of the pile of rocks.

“Guys, you’re not going to get us out of here in time. The Galra are almost here, and you need to get back to the village and warn them about the drill!” Lance yelled.

That’s right. On top of royally botching up their stealth mission, they had failed to shut down the giant drill that the Galra had built. Lance remembered when they had stumbled across the drill a mere three hours ago while split up for reconnaissance.

_“The Galra appear to have constructed a large drill!” Coran said into the coms. “And it looks like it's almost operational!”_

_“Are you sure it’s a drill? If they try to breach the planet’s surface, they could set off a chain reaction that would cause Ankmin to slowly collapse in on itself!” Pidge whispered right back._

“What?”

 _“Lance, did you not read the planet profile I sent you?_ Again? _”_

_Allura sounded exasperated. Lance was, too._

That was around the time when Keith had shouted a half-assed warning into the coms before leading a squadron of Galra _directly_ to Lance and Hunk’s location.

Good times. The current times, though, were not very good. That is, in Lance’s humble opinion.

“We’re not gonna fucking _leave_ you here!” Keith shouted angrily. He kicked the wall a few times, even as Shiro chastised him for dropping the f-bomb.

“We can double back. This cave system is like a maze. If we can make it back to the natural mineral deposits, we’ll be just fine!” Coran said good-naturedly, and Lance looked up from where he was wrapping his arms around a boulder the size of a small moon that he obviously wouldn’t be able to lift.

“What’s so great about the mineral deposits?”

“Next time we’re on a mission, I’m going to force someone to read the planet profile _to_ you,” Allura shouted, but then another tremor shook through the tunnel, causing more rocks to fall and replace the few that they had managed to clear out at the entrance.

“Alright, fine. You three can go back through the tunnels. The coms won’t work in there, so you need to stick together. Just focus on getting back to the other side, and we’ll help evacuate the village.”

“Roger that, team leader,” Lance called back, and then there was another rumble and he and Hunk were following Coran back into the cave system, in the exact opposite direction that Lance would’ve liked to go.

“So… we’re running straight toward an army of Galra. What’s the plan again?” Hunk huffed out.

Lance was wondering the same thing and turned to look at Coran.

“We’re going to build a bomb!”

Lance blinked. He turned to look at Hunk again, who didn’t seem as alarmed by this plan of action as Lance was. Strange, considering _Hunk_ was supposed to be the worrywart around here.

“We’re going to build a _bomb_ in a structurally unstable cave system?”

“That is indeed the plan, Number Three!” Coran answered, and then another rumble rolled through the tunnel.

“Bear with me while I make sure I’ve got all the details right, but that structurally unstable cave system that we’re building a bomb in wouldn’t happen to be the same structurally unstable cave system that we’re currently running through, would it?”

“Yes, Lance,” Hunk replied hastily, and Lance didn’t understand how Hunk of all people could be so fucking _calm_ right now. Well, calm by Hunk standards, at least. “Now shut up and run!”

That, he could do. They passed a lot of offshooting tunnels, and every time Lance thought they had gotten to the right one, Coran or Hunk would run right past it. He honestly had no clue where they were at this point -- Coran was right about this cave being a maze. All the while, Lance could hear the Galra getting closer.

“We’re taking a left up ahead, right?”

The thundering of hundreds of pairs of Galra boots made the choice for them, and they veered into the nearest tunnel.

Lance didn’t recognize any of his surroundings anymore, and he was too out of breath from sprinting for a solid fifteen minutes to ask if anyone else did. He resigned himself to blindly following his friends into the dark.

“Do you think we lost them?” Hunk whisper yelled, slowing his pace to jog beside Lance.

“There’s no telling, yet. Be quiet and follow the veins in the ceiling. They’ll lead us to the mineral deposits,” Coran answered, and the group lapsed back into silence.

The only noise besides their own footfalls and harsh breaths were the echoing footsteps of the army of Galra that was somewhere in this cave system with them.

Lance wondered how the rest of the team was doing.

***

Things were going distinctly _unwell._ Pidge had easily guided the rest of the paladins back to the village, and after that everything had gone to hell.

Of all of the paladins, Pidge had known Hunk and Lance the longest. They had been her (only) friends at the Garrison, and they also happened to be the only people willing to listen to her science jargon. She would never force that on Keith, and Allura and Shiro were kind of unapproachable unless she wanted a shoulder to cry on.

Then there was Coran, of course, who shared her passion for technology and often allowed Pidge to tag along when he was repairing or upgrading the Castle.

Statistically speaking, they had a fairly high chance of success on this mission. Despite the large amount of Galra in that cave with them, Pidge knew not to underestimate Lance’s brains, Hunk’s ingenuity, or Coran’s experience.

But she also didn’t like the idea of her friends going up against the Galra completely alone. She would’ve felt better if she was with them.

As it was, the rest of the paladins had devolved into constant bickering since the end of the tunnel had collapsed.

“Keith, come on already! There’s no way it’s that hard!”

“Oh yeah? Why don’t you try!”

The current issue that Keith and Pidge faced was trying to manually sound the alarm in the village. Allura and Shiro had been swept off to talk to the village elders about the current predicament of their planet, and the Green and Red Paladins had been tasked with… a different job.

Pidge couldn’t fathom _why_ the aliens had designed the alarm system so that it could only be set off by a perfect shot to the center of a target on a fifty-foot tall pedestal, but the fact remained that they had. The feat had to be achieved using the traditional weapon of the village, which vaguely resembled a bow.

And Keith _sucked_ at it.

“Fine, maybe I _will!_ Give me that,” Pidge said, snatching the bow from an annoyed Keith.

“Can you even see the target from down there?”

“Shut up.”

Pidge knocked an arrow, drew back the bowstring, and let her arrow fly all in a span of five seconds. The projectile whizzed off into the distance, some ten feet to the left of her intended target.

“See? Not so easy.”

Pidge sighed in defeat.

“Maybe not for us. I’ve seen Lance land shots that were a lot more difficult than this!”

“Well, Lance isn’t here! We’ve got to come up with something else. Maybe you can climb the tower?”

Another rumble shook the ground beneath Pidge’s feet. She rubbed a tired hand through her hair, straining her mind to come up with a viable solution.

“Um, how about no,” Pidge said, glaring at Keith. “I could try to modify the jetpacks? Or make a local anti-gravity generator?”

Keith stared at her blankly, then gave her a hesitant smile. He looked like a hopeful puppy.

“Okay… how are you gonna do that?”

“Well, I’ll need--” _Fuck._ Pidge would need a certain Yellow Paladin who also happened to be an incredibly skilled engineer. There was no way she would be able to figure this out on her own. “You know what? Let’s try the climbing idea, I liked that more.”

***

“How’s it going back there?”

“Can you give us ten more doboshes? We’re almost done configuring the fuze conduit!”

“I have no idea what you're talking about, but I _can_ give you ten minutes! Easy peasy.”

Lance refocused on the legion of Galra in front of him. Coran and Hunk were around the corner, extracting minerals and constructing a bomb.

Meanwhile, Lance had climbed up onto a ledge and activated his sniper rifle, taking advantage of the natural bottleneck in the tunnel to pick off Galra one by one.

 _Pow. Pow._ Two more down, adding to the steadily growing pile of deactivated robots littering the cave system. All of them with smoking holes in the centers of their heads -- perfect headshots.

Lance didn’t know exactly how many soldiers there were, but the actual Galra appeared to have picked up on Lance’s strategy and were letting the sentries go ahead of them.

It was fine by Lance. They made for easy pickings.

_Pow. Pow._

Another tremor shook through the tunnel, and Lance almost fell from his perch, but he transformed his bayard into a sword and buried it in the wall, catching himself just as the ground beneath his feet crumbled away.

He’d stopped shooting, though, and that meant that the small stretch of tunnel he was holding position in was quickly filling up with Galra sentries.

 _Fuck._ Lance transformed his bayard back into its dormant form, allowing himself to drop all the way to the cave floor before the bayard morphed into his trusty blaster. The time for sniping was over.

 _Pow. Pow. Pow._ Lance spun and ducked, dodging return fire. There wasn’t any cover, so he had to constantly move. Good thing he was a good enough shot that it didn’t matter. _Pow. Pow._

For every sentry he took out, four more took its place. Things were looking pretty hairy when Lance finally took his first hit, a glancing laser blast to his left shoulder.

He dropped to the floor, clutching at his smoking arm.

“Better make it fast, guys! I’m down!” he yelled as he rolled onto his back, laying down a spray of laser fire in an attempt to keep any enemies at bay long enough for him to make a hasty retreat.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lance saw a flash of yellow, and then Hunk was there, launching two turrets that immediately began firing down on the Galra swarms.

“Nice one, buddy!”

“Thanks, it really wasn’t that-- Lance, watch your six!”

Lance whipped around, driving his now sword-shaped bayard through the chest of a Galra lieutenant. His shoulder ached, but it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. Lance could work with it.

He decided that if there was ever a time to channel his inner-Keith, this was it.

Lance yanked his sword out of his downed opponent, adjusted his grip on the handle, and charged at the droves of Galra with his most ferocious battle cry, Hunk’s turrets and gatling gun raining yellow hellfire all around him.

Now _this_ was a fight.

***

“I see.”

“Wonderful. So you understand the gravity of the situation? You’ll let us help you?”

“Well, such an event is entirely unprecedented. We’ll have to go through the proper channels… you must request an audience with the chief before we can act on the information you’ve brought.”

“And how does one go about doing that?” Allura asked, and Shiro could see right through her tight smile. She was getting tired of dealing with this.

“In order to request an audience with the chief, you must first complete a quest to become a champion of the village. The chief won’t see anyone who isn’t a champion.”

Allura glanced over at Shiro, who looked back at her in confusion. _What do you want me to do?_

“You do understand that we’re on a time limit, right? Every minute we waste, your people’s lives are being put more at risk!” Shiro said, waving his arms for emphasis.

“According to our religious text, time is fluid. My people will be safe, and are perfectly happy to wait, until Voltron has completed a quest and convened with the chief.” 

“Great, fine,” Allura cut in, and Shiro thought he might’ve been able to see actual steam coming out of her ears. “What quest do we have to complete so we can meet with your chief and rescue your village?”

“You’ll have to visit the village bookkeeper. He keeps track of all of the--”

Before the alien could finish giving Allura and Shiro more inane instructions, a low-pitched frequency echoed through the valley, and suddenly aliens were flooding the streets, pouring out of their homes and running toward the center of the village.

“The alarm has been sounded! We must go to the Village Square! Make haste, paladins!”

Shiro guessed that meant that Keith and Pidge had successfully set off the alarm. Hopefully, raising the alarm would help them bypass the insanely complicated rules that the village had in place.

Coran would’ve been better at negotiating than Shiro and Allura, but unfortunately, he wasn’t around. The Altean advisor was a skilled diplomat -- he would’ve been able to find some kind of common ground, some angle to approach this from so that they could evacuate the village faster. As it was, he and the princess were trying their best.

When they finally arrived at the town center, Shiro searched the crowd for Pidge and Keith. He saw a flash of red armor at the base of the giant pole in the middle of the square and politely shoved his way through the crowd.

“Keith! Where’s Pidge?”

The Red Paladin whipped around at the sound of Shiro’s voice, and he looked like the exact opposite of calm.

“She’s, uh… she’s--”

“Keith, where is she?” Allura repeated urgently, and Keith went beet red.

He didn’t answer them verbally, just inclined his head slightly. Shiro followed his gaze and gulped.

He could see a dot of green, clinging to a pole some fifty feet above the planet’s surface. Allura rounded on Keith first.

“You let her _climb_ the pole? You’re supposed to shoot the alarm!”

“Look, I know, but we were wasting time and we’re both terrible shots and she kind of volunteered but--”

“Aright, everybody just calm down. Pidge is a good climber, and if she falls she can use the jetpack to come down safely.”

Allura huffed, still squinting up at Pidge.

“I suppose so. And at least the alarm has been triggered.”

Keith visibly deflated, and Shiro sighed. Somehow, this mission was becoming a lot more stressful than when they were just sneaking through a Galra installation.

“Hey, what’s that?”

“I think it’s a person...”

“What? No way!”

Shiro, Keith, and Allura all paled when they heard the commotion behind them, turning to face the crowd of aliens with growing dread. All of their eyes were pointed skyward, several arms pointing accusingly at Pidge’s form way above their heads.

One of the village elders held up a hand, silencing the raucous crowd.

“We have discussed this matter and concur that the alarm was _false,”_ she bellowed, and the crowd _exploded_. Shiro grimaced. “Additionally, any individuals found to be involved in this false alarm will be charged with treason!”

_Oh, shit._

“Shiro, what do we do?” Keith whisper yelled, pulling on Shiro’s elbow.

“I-- I don’t know, Pidge is still up there and--”

“Uh, paladins?” Allura asked, and Shiro and Keith turned away from each other to find that the entire square full of aliens was staring at them.

“Fuck.”

***

Hunk glanced behind his shoulder again. Still nothing, yet the pounding of thousands of feet that reverberated through the tunnel system told him they were losing ground. And fast.

“Coran? How much farther?”

The cave shook again, a particularly low overhang threatening to collapse as Hunk and Lance darted under it, trailing closely behind Coran.

“We’re almost there, lad! Just keep running like there’s an angry klanmüirl on your tail!”

“I don’t know what a klanmüirl is, but an army of Galra is good enough for me,” Lance replied, upping his pace slightly.

Hunk looked back again. Still nothing. He squared his shoulders, adjusting his grip on the homemade bomb he and Coran had made, and kept running.

Behind them, the sound of laser fire picked up and the Galra started yelling at each other.

“What’re they shooting at?”

“I don’t think we wanna know,” Lance said, gripping his bad arm tightly as he continued running after Coran.

It had been a close one, earlier. Lance could’ve died alone in that tunnel. He hadn’t even said anything, just that they were running out of time. And since they’d gotten away from the part of the caves with the natural mineral deposits, Lance hadn’t uttered a single word about any pain. When this was all over, Hunk was sticking him in a pod, and then he would try to talk some sense into his friend.

“We’re here! Lance, I need you to cover for us while we rig the bomb,” Coran yelled as Hunk stepped into a large underground chamber with six different tunnels coming out of it.

“You got it, Coran.”

Lance summoned his bayard and changed it into his standard blaster, starting back toward the tunnel they had just emerged from. Hunk grabbed his good shoulder before he went.

“Be careful this time,” Hunk murmured, and a serious look passed over Lance’s face as he nodded in understanding. “Don’t make me come save you again.”

“As if,” Lance replied, his lopsided grin finally making an appearance. “I’ll leave you two geniuses to it. Now, there’s plenty of Galra heads out there that look like they could use a new hole.”

Hunk chuckled as Lance disappeared down the tunnel.

He was well aware of how skilled Lance was in combat, but he was equally well aware of the fact that his friend had a self-sacrificing streak a mile wide. He didn’t like it when Lance went into combat unsupervised. But, well. _Desperate times._

“How are we doing this, Coran?”

“We’re going to set the bomb here, with separate charges there, there, and there,” the Altean responded, gesturing around the small underground room. Hunk was finding it difficult to concentrate when he could hear the sound of laser fire coming from behind him. “When they detonate, we’ll theoretically be able to collapse the entire tunnel full of Galra, but we need to place the bombs so that we don’t cause any extra structural damage that’ll put us in danger.”

“Right,” Hunk hummed, completing a slow circle around the chamber. “So we’ll have to find the best spots by…?”

Coran knocked on the wall, listening to the sound bounce off of the walls. “Tapping! Now, we better get cracking if we want to get ourselves out of this sticky wicket, Number Two!”

Hunk sighed, turning to the cave wall and giving it an experimental tap. He shut out the sound of gunfire and yelling and focused on planting the bombs.

***

“ _God,_ this is such a stupid plan.”

“Shut your trap, Keith. It’s working! Look!”

“Pidge is right. Technically, it’s working.”

“We’re basically _kidnapping_ the entire village!”

“Not kidnapping, more like… strategic relocation? It’s for the greater good, dude. We’re heroes!”

“I can’t believe this is happening.”

After the paladins had been run out of the village for falsely raising the alarm, they had to resort to different tactics to get these people to safety. The small earthquakes were occurring significantly more frequently, and there was still no sign of Coran, Hunk, or Lance.

Thus, their current course of action -- luring the entirety of the village into the belly of the Black Lion, who was hovering just over the planet’s surface. Shiro had summoned her, and then the paladins simply had to announce their presence. The entire village had shown up, waving around torches and farming equipment. Apparently, they were all very enthusiastic about punishing treason.

Allura had left to do a final sweep of the village and make sure everyone was out. Meanwhile, Keith was hiding behind a bush with his brother and Pidge, watching several hundred aliens storm up Black’s ramp.

“It’s happening, alright,” Pidge snickered. She was probably the most amused by the entire situation, though Keith had also caught Shiro trying to suppress a smile.

Keith heard some rustling in the bush behind him and turned around to find that Allura had returned. She had a wagon full of several villagers, some apparently sick or asleep, that hadn’t come.

“This is it. We’ve got them all.”

“Alright, it looks like everyone else is on Black. We should be good to go,” Shiro replied.

“Any news from the other half of Voltron?”

Pidge’s reply was cut off by a loud _thoom_ echoing through the valley, causing the ground to tremble below their feet. Keith’s eyes widened. That had come from the caves.

“If the villagers are alright, we need to go help our friends.”

Shiro made a face, glancing between Black, whose ramp was now closed, and Keith, who now had a look of murderous determination in his eyes. He was conflicted.

“Look, me and Keith can go help them. You and Allura can stay here and get the villagers off-planet,” Pidge offered, already standing up like the decision had been made.

Shiro hesitated for a moment, but eventually relented, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Fine. Be safe,” he said, and Keith was already following Pidge away from the bushes they’d been hiding out in. They’d have to circle around to the Galra installation since the closer cave entrance was sealed shut. It would take a while. “Try not to do anything stupid!”

“Sure thing, Shiro.”

***

“It’s times like these that I’m reminded of little Afres and Rorron.”

“Who?”

Coran chuckled, dodging another falling rock as he barreled through the collapsing cave tunnel. The plan had… mostly worked.

“My boys! We used to explore caves like this all the time! There was this one time we ran into a family of hifflebuples and had to--”

 _“You had children?”_ Lance asked incredulously, out of breath as he ran beside Hunk.

“Indeed I did. Twin boys, in fact.”

“You never said anything about them!” Hunk yelled, equally out of breath. Outrunning a collapsing tunnel could take a lot out of anyone.

“Well…” Coran trailed off, thinking about the day Zarkon had attacked and destroyed every neighboring planet before Altea itself. Thinking about the day he’s lost his family, his life, his _children._ And how he hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye, how he’d had to keep his promise to Alfor and protect Allura rather than spending his final moments with the people that meant more to him than all of the stars. “It was a long time ago.”

There was something following them down the tunnel -- whatever had been attacking the Galra earlier. He had a suspicion as to what it was, but Coran would rather not speculate. He needed to get the paladins to safety.

“Coran, it doesn’t matter that it was theoretically ten-thousand years,” Hunk huffed, his feet slapping against the dirt floor of the cave. “Actually, it was more like a few months for you.”

“Yeah,” Lance agreed. “You’ve always supported us and been there for us. We want to be there for you, too.”

Coran resolutely ignored the tears that were threatening to fall from his eyes and continued running down the tunnel, taking a right up ahead.

“I appreciate that, paladins, but right now we have something else to worry about.”

“What? The Galra are gone -- we’re practically home free!”

“Not quite,” Coran responded, feeling the ground rumble beneath his feet in a way that wasn’t related to the relative instability of the planet. They had been caught. “Move!”

Coran turned around, tackling both Hunk and Lance to the ground as something large burst through the ground in the spot they’d previously been standing.

“What the _quiznack_ is that?” Lance yelled, scrambling backward. He’d landed on his bad shoulder -- Coran could tell by the way his brow was knit in pain. But Lance was strong.

“An Ankminian miramak, native to the planet. They’re a tunneling creature, hence the caves,” Coran supplied, helping Hunk to his feet as they all backed away from the creature slowly.

“So, a giant mole.”

“Are these ‘moles’ you speak of carnivorous?”

“Well, yes, they eat insec--” Hunk responded, before trailing off. “Oh. A man-eating mole. Great.”

Coran slowly extended his arm across Hunk and Lance’s chests, trying to get them to stay in place.

“Now, nobody make any sudden movements. We can escape if--”

Lance yelped from behind him, tripping on a rock and falling on his ass. The miramak’s giant head swiveled toward them, pitch-black eyes seemingly unseeing even as its pink nose snuffled loudly.

They had been spotted.

“Alright, new plan: Run!”

Lance shot to his feet and Hunk led them backward, the way they’d come from. They were doubling back toward the main cave.

“I hate it when running is the plan,” Lance grumbled, but he kept pace even as an angry screech sounded behind them and the miramak slammed into a cave wall, unable to replicate the sharp turn that the paladins had made.

Another rumble shook through the caves, and Coran heard a staticky whine from his com -- it was coming back online.

“Voltron! Are you receiving me? I need an update on the village situation!”

“Coran! I can… is clear but… planet’s gone!” Pidge replied, her voice mostly swamped by static.

“Could you repeat that, Number Five?”

“The village is… but the drill… you only… get out!”

Coran glanced up at Lance and Hunk who were tearing through the cave, heading toward the exit that would dump them back at the Galra installation. He looked over his shoulder and saw a lump under the ground, rocks crumbling away as it grew steadily closer. The miramak was burrowing.

And if he’d heard Pidge right, then the Galra were beginning to use the drill on the planet. By his calculations, they were still a good forty-five doboshes away from the cave exit.

“Don’t look back, paladins!”

***

Pidge generally wasn’t against making decisions. She was decisive by nature -- there wasn’t any time to be unsure or second guess herself. But now, the lives of her friends were on the line and she had to make a tough call.

The Galra had started drilling. Pidge guessed the damage would be irreparable in… maybe a varga. Two vargas, max.

Luckily, the villagers were safely off the planet. While they would be losing their entire planet and way of life, at least they would be alive to start over.

Meanwhile, Coran, Hunk, and Lance were still running through a cave. The coms had gone silent again after she’d tried to tell Coran about the drill. She wasn’t even sure if the message had gone through to him.

So the decision was between heading back into the caves, where her friends were presumably fighting for their lives against hundreds of Galra, or trying to sabotage the drill and save the entire planet.

Keith had made his decision clear -- he wanted to rescue the members of Voltron in the cave. But Pidge knew his judgment was clouded. Because of the Lance factor, mostly.

And while Pidge had a clearer perspective, she didn’t like the conclusion it had led to. She knew sabotaging the drill to save the planet was the smarter move -- if she and Keith got trapped with everyone else in the caves or took too long rescuing them, it wouldn’t matter that they’d chosen their friends because they’d all die together on this god-forsaken planet.

The only problem left would be convincing Keith, who was very single-mindedly hacking through the dense forest that separated them from the Galra installation.

“Keith.”

She received a grunt in reply. _Should’ve gone with Allura._

“Listen, I really think--”

“Let’s just focus on getting to the team. They need our help.”

“I know, but--”

“ _Pidge,_ ” Keith said, cutting her off and pausing with his blade raised above his head. “Please. Just let me do this.”

Pidge regarded him for a moment. She got it, of course. She wanted to save the team, too. But they were talking about an _entire_ planet here, and there were so many unknown variables…

Keith was the first to look away from their impromptu staring contest. He brought his bayard down on a thick vine, and Pidge exhaled slowly as she followed him deeper into the jungle.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I wanted to put this out here for ya, but I haven't actually started writing the second part. It's all outlined, tho. So... give it another... actually I'm not gonna put myself on a timeline but you know at some point in the future it will exist. Love y'all and thanks for the wonderful prompt, bookdragon9113 <333 (I hope this is what you wanted??? If you don’t like it I’m sorry 😭)
> 
> [Tumblr](https://crapoftheworldblr.tumblr.com)


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